As one reads the description of MEGATROID one will see that this isn’t the average “tap-to-win” freemium casual game. During development we’ve constantly been trying to analyze our market and focusing on the needs of our target costumer.

It took us a visit to Germany to realize what kind of game MEGATROID really is. If you’re an avid reader of our blog you’ll know that Magnus and I went to Casual Connect in Hamburg last February. A great meet-up filled with speeches and discussion panels for developers and publishers alike that focus on developing casual games for browsers and smartphones!

By the end of the first day I went to Peter Warman from Newzoo‘s speech “Mid-core Gaming. Sizing and Profiling the Opportunity in Western and Emerging markets”. To be honest I had little to no expectations and only went to this one because it sounded more interesting than the “State of Global Investment” speech (I gave that one to Magnus instead). Warman introduced his speech with making an analogy of games and cars. We have the casual market with games such as Bejeweled and Bubble Witch Saga; he compared these ones with Volkswagen Golf. Then in the middle are mid-core games such as League of legends and Army Attack, he related these to a Panamera Porsche and Cygnet Aston Martin. Last, we had the real hardcore games such as EVE Online, this one is the Enzo Ferrari of the gaming industry. The pricing of the cars have nothing to do with the pricing of the actual games, seeing that many of them are free-to-play. What he based the analogy on is time.

Peter Warman's speech on Mid-Core gaming at Casual Connect

When core games are young they have plenty of time to spend and dig deep into the advanced mechanics and time consuming gameplay of their games. Once they get a bit older time is more of a luxury. Perhaps they got a full time job, managed to pick up a partner and children along the road and so they must spend their time on other things? If there’s one thing that’s sure it’s that Ferrari isn’t a family car. You can’t fit your family and grocery in it; it’s only a sweet ride that goes fast. Of course the need to have a nice ride didn’t disappear with the acquisition of family; it’s still there. This is where the Aston Martin (mid-core) comes into the picture: you can fit your whole family in it and still have quite the driving experience. During Warman’s speech I had a kind of revelation about what we’re actually doing here at Triolith Entertainment. He talked about how mid-core games deliver an immersive experience with casual gameplay. In hindsight that’s what we’ve been doing here in the office from the get-go. When you think about it even our first game on the Appstore, Wisp: Eira’s Tale fits with Warman’s description.

We here at Triolith Entertainment have always been questioned as to why we don’t make cute games with colorful graphics and simple mechanics. “That’s where all the money is”, we’ve been told over and over again. So when Warman pulled up his numbers and charts during his speech my revelation experience turned into a business wake-up call.

He explained that the western mid-core market potential is over $2bn and knowing that tells me that if you try to think outside the box and deliver an immersive experience, you can make money with a non-cute game. Warman concluded his speech with a sentence that really fits the target consumer of MEGATROID: “Old love never dies”. There will be more mid-core gamers to come and they will search the Appstore for something that reminds them of their long lost love and we at Triolith Entertainment will be there to answer their needs.

Developing MEGATROID takes a lot of time but we’re still gamers at heart. Spending eleven hours a day on development sure is exhausting but when we get home the majority of us enjoy a game or two of League of Legends together before going to bed. We still want that delicious gaming experience without committing several hours to it. And with that in mind I wake up in the morning and go to work trying to deliver just that: great gaming experiences that don’t require a lot of time out of you.

- Malte

PS. Here’s the speech that Warman gave, if you’re interested in taking a look!